A distribution or manufacturing facility may use material handling equipment, including a wide range of electric powered vehicles, such as electric forklifts and automated guided vehicle systems. A large facility may operate hundreds of such electric powered vehicles, which, in turn, require a large number of industrial batteries to provide power to such electric vehicles. As may be appreciated, it is desirable to maximize the performance and useful life of such a large number of industrial batteries thereby lowering the overall cost of ownership of such assets.
Known systems and methods for managing resources, such as industrial batteries, monitors information received about batteries and battery chargers, analyzes the information to identify battery performance and charging issues and problems, and communicates information to personnel to take action to address the identified issues and problems. Such known systems, however, have disadvantages. The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for managing large numbers of industrial batteries that overcome some of the disadvantages of the known systems and methods of doing so.
More specifically, the computer implemented system and method, and the computer program product, of the current disclosure integrates battery and battery charger information from various manufacturers, as well as battery environment and application information, into a common format, and uses business rules to identify battery performance issues and to adjust a battery charging profile by communicating battery profile information to a battery charger via an application programming interface to the battery charger or to communicate a maintenance or repair action to address an identified performance issue. The system and method of the present disclosure also may assess the effectiveness of a battery charging profile adjustment and/or maintenance and/or repair action and generate management reports and other information about battery performance.